


When I Grow Up, I’ll Buy You a Rose

by BriMarie



Series: The Book of Love: Rini Drabbles [8]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Drabble, F/M, Fluff, Nini Salazar roberts - Freeform, Promises, Roses, high school musical the musical the series - Freeform, hsmtmts, rickini, ricky bowen - Freeform, rini - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24890455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriMarie/pseuds/BriMarie
Summary: Ricky keeps a promise he made to Nini when they were kids.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Series: The Book of Love: Rini Drabbles [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757938
Kudos: 59





	When I Grow Up, I’ll Buy You a Rose

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song Buy you a rose by AJR.

A 9 year old Ricky and Nini were playing in Nini’s backyard when he makes the promise he’d keep for future him.

They had been chasing each other in a game of tag in her mom's small garden of various flowers. As Nini tries her best to reach Ricky, she accidentally trips on her own shoelace causing her to fall flat on her face. Ricky gasps and runs to her side.

"Nini, are you okay?" He lightly shakes her body trying to get any reaction from her. She lifted her head from the colony of roses she had fallen in. She gave him a simple thumbs up as a way of saying she's fine.

"Yep! All good down here; help me up." She reached her hand out for him to grab. When he took it, she yanked him down with her to the ground. 

"What the heck Nini?!" 

She just laughs, "Ha, you're it!"

"That's cheating! I was helping you!"

"All is fair in love and war."

He huffs and folds his arms. "Hmph, I don't wanna play anymore."

"Fine by me. We can just chill on the ground surrounded by all of these pretty flowers." She picks a few of the roses around her from the ground and sniffs them.

Since they've met, Ricky had known she was obsessed with flowers curtesy to momma D. She was a fan of all flowers, but she was most drawn to roses. She always adored the unique patterns and colors they came in. She would go into detail about all of the characteristics of roses to anyone who was willing to listen.

"Roses are so pretty. I want to be surrounded by them all the time."

He looks over at his best friend and can't help the smile that appears on his face when he sees how peaceful she looks.

"Is that so?"

She smiles from ear to ear. "Yep! Roses always make me so happy. All I want is for a special someone to give me a bunch of roses when I'm old enough to date."

"Why's that?"

"Because roses symbolize love silly." 

He feels blood rush to his face. Romance was always a taboo topic for him and most boys at his age.

"Well I promise that a special someone will do that for you one day."

"You think so?" 

He nods reassuringly. "I know so."

She finally sets the roses aside and gets up from the ground. "Come on, let's go inside. I think momma D is baking cookies."

He doesn't hesitate to jump up from the ground when he hears the word cookies. "Race you to the kitchen!" He doesn't even give her a chance to digest his words before he sprints to the screen doors.

"Hey that's cheating!"

He looks over his shoulder and smirks. "I thought all is fair in love and war!"

***

_Seven years later..._

"Happy birthday Nini!"

Nini smiles when she sees her good friend Kourtney approach her in the backstage of the school theater.

"Thanks Kourt!" 

They briefly hug before Kourtney whips out a decorative gift bag. "I know you said you didn't want anything this year, but come on I can't just not get you something on your 16th birthday. It's basically a sin!"

Nini playfully rolled her eyes and took the bag. "Honestly Kourt you didn't have to do this."

"I don't think you'll be saying that when you open the bag."

Nini rose a brow due to curiosity. She opens the bag and gasp when she sees the gift.

"No way! You got me the new EXO album! I swore this wasn't gonna come out for another month! How'd you even get this?"

"Let's just say I can be very persuasive when I want to be. By the way, the K-Pop stans do _not_ play games." She shivers at the memory of receiving the present.

Nini wraps her arms around her other best friend. "Thanks so much! I owe you big time for your next bday."

"Don't worry about it girl. You just go home and enjoy the rest of your birthday."

"Kourt we both know I'm just gonna end up buying you a gift."

Kourtney begins to walk away and covers her ears. "What was that? Oh no I can't hear you." Nini giggles as she watches her friend leave. 

When she got home a little later, the first thing she noticed is the fact that Ricky's skateboard had been lying against her front porch. The second thing she noticed is that neither of her moms' cars were present. 

Her suspicion had risen since she usually knew when Ricky was coming over since he always texted her when he was in route. He also has never been to her home without her already being in it. The whole situation was rather odd.

She opens her front door and scans the room to see if there were any sign of Ricky, but there wasn't any. 

"Ricky, are you here?"

She doesn't get a reply however she hears footsteps from upstairs. She quickly grabs the bat that was in the coat closet just in case it's an intruder. She creeps up the stairs swearing under her breath when she steps on a rather creaky stair.

She sees light illuminating from the closed door of her room. She slowly walks to her room fully prepared for the worst. She barges through her door ready to swing at whoever dared to trespass.

"Woah calm down it's just me!"

She lets out a sigh of relief and sets down the bat when she sees Ricky standing in front of her bed for some reason.

"Ricky what're you—

She cuts herself off when she finally takes the time to look at her room. It had been redecorated with red roses neatly sprawled across the room. She was speechless at how beautiful it was. 

"Ricky what's all this about?"

He nervously bites his lip. "Um it's your birthday gift from me. I set it up while you were rehearsing."

She was about to say something, but he spoke before she could. "I know you said you didn't want anything for your birthday, but I just remembered a promise I had made when we were 9 in your backyard and realized that I needed to fulfill it. Do you remember that promise?"

Her lip quivers and she nods her head. She was shocked he even remembered that. He slowly began to approach her.

"Well I said that someday a special someone will give you a bunch of roses. I remember you always going on and on about how red roses resemble passion and love and romance. And uh well I figured I'd kinda kill two birds with one stone by giving you a birthday gift and expressing my feelings for you using the flower you adore the most all at once."

He pulls out a bouquet of red roses from behind his back and hands it to her. She gladly accepts them and takes a sniff of them. She held them close to her chest and met his gaze. 

"Nini, I've been thinking for a while now and I realized that my feelings for you are more intense than a friendship. It probably has been for a few years now, but somehow I'm just now noticing it. I just really wanted you to know that I really like you, and it's totally okay if you don't feel the same way. This is a lot to take at once and now I can't stop rambling because I'm nervous and I-

"Ricky."

She placed the roses on her dresser and held both of his hands in hers. "You know in musicals when people sing for no reason?"

"Yeah sure..."

She smiles up at him. "Sometimes it's easier just to kiss."

"Yeah?"

She nods and jumps into his arms connecting their lips together. He kisses back with just as much passion and brings her body closer to his. Her fingers play with his curls as they continued to kiss. She unlatched their lips.

"This was so sweet, thank you." 

He pecks her lips. "I'm glad you liked it. Oh I almost forgot! Can I be your special someone?"

She kisses him with all her might and then rested her chin on his chest.

"So is that a yes?" 

She laughs at his obliviousness. "Yes, sí, oui, da, yes in every language, absolutely!" 

He chuckles and leans in to give her another kiss.

"Best birthday present ever."

***

_True love is like little roses, sweet, fragrant in small doses._


End file.
